Picture me rolling in my 500 Benz
Those words belong to Tupac Shakur, who owned and regularly drove an R129 Mercedes-Benz SL500. Why are we telling you this? Because the SL500 – and the SL itself – is not only a monument in the car world, but it also trickled down into various areas of street culture.
The R129 SL came in 1989. The base version in the U.S. was the SL300 (228 horsepower, 3.0-liter inline-six), but to really mean business and turn heads, you had to go for the SL500 and its 5.0-liter, 326-horsepower V-8.
Of course, Mercedes-AMG wanted a piece of the SL and it got quite a few, including the rare and hardcore SL 73 AMG which packed the most powerful V-12 ever dropped inside a Mercedes when it hit the market in 1995: 7.3 liters, 518 horsepower, 750 Newton-meters of torque (553 pound-feet). A SL 70 AMG was also offered, along with the likes of SL 60 AMG and SL 55 AMG.
History aside, let’s take a look at Jonsibal’s vision of a R129-gen SL500 turned speedster. Truth be told, we never thought such a contraption can look good but it does, even if that windscreen looks razor sharp and could easily be classified as a cold weapon.
Perhaps the artist overdid the wheel camber but that’s not something that’s necessarily bothering our eyes, not when the mean widebody kit gives the SL a mean, street thug look.